..."You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run."

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Y'all Gon' Make Me Lose My Mind...(up in here, up in here)

When rapper DMX recorded this song, I seriously doubt he thought that a thirty something Volvo driving white woman would make it her swan song. Before you rush to judgement, here is a summary of the last two weeks, that peaked in the past fourteen hours.

Monday: children dragging their feet getting ready for school, walking around in various states of undress and generally being shiftless.

Tuesday: children dragging their feet getting ready for school, walking around in various states of undress and generally being shiftless.

Wednesday:
children dragging their feet getting ready for school, walking around in various states of undress and generally being shiftless.

Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: children dragging their feet getting ready for school, walking around in various states of undress and generally being shiftless.

10:15 - take her back upstairs, cuddle, snuggle and re-tuck. Go to bed myself, so that the day will be over sooner.

11:10 - wake up because she is standing next to me, now telling me that she is afraid of one of the characters in a book on CD we've been listening to in the car. Tell her to get in bed with us because I can't take it anymore.

12:20 - wake up because husband is sawing logs. Take my sorry self to the couch, get settled. I'm almost asleep when I realize that someone is looking at me. Send Cecilia to go sleep in our bed with husband.

2:30 - wake up again because Will is up using the bathroom, and since he will not go in there without all the lights on, the whole house is illuminated.

5:15 - wake up because Will is up again, no idea what he's doing at this point, because I'm delirious and don't care anymore.

6:10 - wake up, now late, because I'm sleeping on the couch and there is no alarm clock out there and husband is not up on time to get me.

6:30 on - children dragging their feet getting ready for school, walking around in various states of undress and generally being shiftless. Will decided to mix it up this morning and empty the playground sand from his boots onto to the floor. When I almost started crying about this, I realized that they've broken me.

What generally happens when we reach this point (yes, we've been here before) is that I go bat shit crazy on everyone and they get back in line some. My problem is that I'm so tired of having to police them constantly just to keep them on the fringe of decent human behavior, (modified for the immaturity of kids of course), that my tolerance for this is ebbing more and more with every cycle.

In short, I'M GOING CRAZY.

What about you guys? Do you have any suggestions about how to keep a good routine going, without losing your sanity, your mind or your rather disproportionate temper? If you have suggestions that don't include child abuse, let me know. Meanwhile, I'm just going to watch kitten videos all day and try not to gorge myself on junk food. What? It's called self soothing - stop looking at me in that tone of face! See? CRAZY.

7 comments:

I feel your pain. We started using chore charts for our kids (6 and 9). I do the heavy lifting to set it all up and then it is up to them. They don't do the chore they don't get the reward. I don't have to harp and nag and they know if I have to remind them they don't get the "points" for having done the chore. It took a few days to get going, but is pretty self sustaining after that. I really liked having the insight to what was most important to them by letting them choose the rewards. http://www.worldaccordingtoshannon.com/2010/10/secret-to-peace.html

That would be great - I would love to celebrate sometime! Yeah, we are pretty much past the defiant stuff, but are in the thick of what I like to call cwon't. This is a blend of can't and won't, which results in them basically doing nothing I ask or expect. I'm sure the teenage years will probably bring us back to NO! Sigh.

EXCELLENT point. My friend told me that she sings 70's and 80's ballads in her most booming Rick Astley voice and that she doesn't quit until they are busting hump. I plan to utilize this method this afternoon.